WWE Survivor Series 2012: Why This Was a Damaging Victory for CM Punk

Yesterday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view was full of exciting moments, including Team Ziggler pulling off the win from the elimination tag team match and Sheamus Brogue-Kicking the referee in his match against the Big Show to complicate the World Heavyweight championship match.

Therefore, the audience expected a high-quality main event, especially since it was a triple threat between the three biggest names in WWE right now, Ryback, John Cena and CM Punk.

It certainly was.

While CM Punk proved victorious and retained the WWE Belt, the way in which he won left viewers in complete confusion, questioning if Punk deserved to keep the title for what is now 365 days. While this win was huge for CM Punk, the two interferences that occurred at Hell in a Cell and Survivor Series are very damaging to the prestige of his reign.

Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose are future WWE superstars who are currently performing at live events for filler matches. Having personally seen them both work live events, I know that they really hold their own and provide exciting and entertaining matches at House shows.

However, I don’t think anyone was expecting for these two most-talked-about WWE developmental wrestlers to make their debut at Survivor Series during the main event. Are they acting out on their disappointment of not being called to the main roster? Is Brad Maddox involved?

Ryback is currently the wrestler to defeat, so it makes sense that these wrestlers would do all in their power to beat the best, but why during a main event in a PPV? What will come of this new plot line, I'm not sure, but what it does show is that CM Punk is depending on pure luck to keep the belt.

Despite this unexpected twist to the triple threat match, the otherwise predictable outcome arose of CM Punk retaining the title. I couldn't imagine that Punk would be stripped of the belt when today marked a full year of his being WWE Champion.

With this being the second time that an interference has benefited Punk, the question arises: Does CM Punk actually deserve to keep the belt?

Had CM Punk won these matches on his own merit, nobody would even think to question his claim to the WWE Championship.

CM Punk has proven to the WWE Universe on multiple occasions that he can defeat John Cena, so it should not be a surprise that he was able to pin Cena for the win tonight. However, Punk has failed to defeat the behemoth that is Ryback, who is clearly his biggest threat.

Without a clean win against Ryback, this is becoming a tarnished title reign for Punk, despite the fact that these interferences seemingly have no connection with the current WWE Champion.

So even though Punk is benefiting greatly from these isolated events, he is not winning the matches on his own merit.

These occasions have worked in favor of CM Punk for now, but we will just have to see how this plays out at TLC next month, in the hope that Punk’s title run is legitimized again.